Meet the Cast of Captain America: Civil War

By Erin

*I was invited as a guest of Disney*

This Friday, May 6th comes the highly anticipated creation of Marvel Studio’s latest film, “Captain America: Civil War.” Directed by Anthony & Joe Russo, the start of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 3 sees the Earth’s Mightiest Super Heroes divided when the government sets up a governing body to oversee the Avengers, where the team splinters into two camps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.

At a recent press junket in Los Angeles, the two sides made a grand appearance to talk about the new film. Team Iron Man was first to tell us their side of the story. This included; Director Anthony Russo, Paul Bettany, (“Vision”), Robert Downey Jr., (“Tony Stark / Iron Man”), Don Cheadle, (“James Rhodes / War Machine”), Emily Van Camp, (“Sharon Carter / Agent 13”) although she is not on Team Iron Man, and Producer Kevin Feige.

Here are some of the fun things we learned from the “Team Iron Man” group:

*Robert Downey Jr. is still reeling from the fact that Paul Bettany was Jarvis and now he’s Vision… “If you just stop, you go ‘so here’s what’s going on with Tony,’ I go ‘waitaminute. Did he make a guy?!’ Look at him!”
*Technological advances in film-making: Anthony Russo shared with us that, “You sort of reap the benefits and you sort of push forward every film and this movie has a very remarkable sequence I think where Robert Downey Jr. plays a twenty-year old man…which is pretty incredible.” Robert Downey Jr. added in how nostalgic it all is. Very expensive nostalgia.

*Spiderman was flawlessly brought into the film. The producers took the opportunity to create organic ways to bring new characters into the movie and to create more balance to the story. This helped them to tell a more complicated story between captain America and Iron Man. By bringing in characters without any baggage allowed the dynamic of the movie to stay unchanged as they have not been emotionally invested into the Avengers storyline.

*War Machine doesn’t get an upgrade? War machine isn’t given any new tricks or fun toy upgrades like the other characters are. Don Cheadle commented, “Thank God somebody finally laid it bare…I think we’ll see. It’s not over…unless it is, ’cause I haven’t seen the movie. Do…I live? Does War Machine live? ”

*Chadwick was the only choice for Black Panther: Kevin Feige told us how he was the only choice to play the role of Black Panther. ” We wanted somebody who perhaps was invested but didn’t have allegiances to any one side. As these discussions were going on, we thought ‘I think we’re going to bring Black Panther into this movie. I’m not kidding when I say Chadwick (Boseman) was the only choice. His performance in ’42,’ his performance in ‘Get on Up,’ how different those performances are, and my memory is that we called him on the conference room speaker when we were developing the movie. He was in his car either about to get out or had just gotten back in and we said, ‘have you ever heard of Black Panther,’ and he went ‘Yes! Yes! Why are You asking me that??!!’ And we said ‘do you want to play the part,’ and he was very excited.”

*The girls get to kick some butt and are still good with guns! Emily Van Camp shared with us that she is out of the “rookie stage” with portraying Sharon Carter and has matured. “I think I was definitely slightly intimidated in the first one, in ‘Winter Soldier,’ just kind of getting used to it. I think that lent itself well for the character, she was sort of more in like a rookie stage, and it’s great to see her come back in a little bit more of a mature light, she’s confident and she’s still good with guns and she gets to kick a little butt in this one. It’s a great time.”

Team Captain America was up next (and my favorite side)! The fun and jokes continued. A lot of fun was poked at Team Iron Man and with how ‘old’ they are in comparison. It was a very light and fun atmosphere. In attendance for Team Captain America was: Producer Kevin Feige, Director Joe Russo, Jeremy Renner (“Clint Baron / Hawkeye”), Elizabeth Olsen (“Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch”), Chris Evans (“Steve Rogers / Captain America”), Sebastian Stan (“Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier”), Anthony Mackie (“Sam Wilson / Falcon”), and Paul Rudd (“Scott Lang / Ant-Man”).

Here are a few of the fun things we learned from Team Captain America:

*Team Name Calling: Team Iron Man had called them “Team burpees,” so Anthony Mackie in comeback chimed, “They are old. They’re ‘Team Remember to Take Your Gingko Biloba’ or ‘Team Where is my Viagra’ at.”

*The Airport Scene: There is a really awesome airport sequence in the film and was a bit challenging and the most difficult scene to shoot. Chris Evans told us, “It was hot. It was in August in Atlanta so everyone was toasty. For the most part its picks and pops so there’s a lot of waiting around. You really have to have confidence that this is going to be something special.” Elizabeth Olsen also shared with us, “These guys run really fast, and I’m in heals and a corset, and I really wanted everyone to slow down just a little bit. I didn’t get that. I was just pumping those arms and falling behind, and then taking off so it was fine.”

*Captain America protecting the all-American values but rejects the government: Chris Evans explained to us that “The name America stands for what he believes in, honor, morality, and values. He’s always fought for the greater good and put the needs of the masses before his own desire. This film prioritizes what he wants, which is apart from what he is normally allegiant to. It colors the character in a really nice way. You have the guy who is an incredibly austere and moral character, and in this movie he becomes potentially selfish, where he puts his own desires first but is rooted in family.”

*Paul Rudd, the great improvisor: Joe Russo told us how Paul is one of the great improvisers that you could hope to work with. “It is true that when he had the mask it was a great benefit to both of us, in terms of modulating the tone in that section of the movie. We had endless amounts of jokes that we’d sit and laugh about for hours.”

*Fanboy of the group? Paul Rudd could not believe he was going to be a part of this film. When asked how excited he was to meet everyone he told us, “How I felt as being the fanboy of the group? There was very little acting required in that scene for me. They’ve all worked together and done this before, I’ve just seen the movies, so to be there on the day I couldn’t stop geeking out about it. I can’t believe that I’m standing here. This is nuts.”